


Hakoda

by whismurr



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Canon, Dealing with, Gen, Sad, Trauma, War, Water tribe, book three, i guess, introspective, thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-07-20
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:28:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25395388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whismurr/pseuds/whismurr
Summary: Hakoda has been reunited with Katara and Sokka, and it's bittersweet because he knows how they have suffered. Takes place between the end of Book Two and the beginning of Book Three.
Kudos: 21





	Hakoda

Reuniting with his children was the most beautiful thing he had ever experienced, but so much had changed.

In the weeks that followed Aang’s near-death in the caverns, Hakoda was entertained by the stories of their adventures. It was wonderful to hear, to connect and feel reunited, but even more terrible to consider.

Sokka was basically a man now, a real warrior unlike the little boy he had left behind, and Katara, who had not quite felt like a child since the day her mother was taken from her, was even less so.

Lying awake in his bed on their stolen Fire Navy ship at night it occurred to him the depth of what his young children had suffered and accomplished in such a short time. It dawned that they were now the kind of people to be read about in history books, and he realized that he had not wanted that for them.

He turned over, his large naval official’s bedroom feeling cold and empty. Sokka was good at keeping his fear in check most of the time, but Katara as always wore her heart plainly on her sleeve. She was only fourteen, and had now seen more of the world and its horrors than most.

She and Sokka had escaped death more times than he’d ever know. They had been to prison, witnessed the fall of kingdoms, and the loss of friends. War was their life in a way that felt so cruelly normal, and he couldn’t help but feel partially responsible.

Had he, in a way, left to escape his grief?

It pained him to admit, but it was true that the war effort had become a channel into which his pain could flow. Kanna’s death ripped their family to shreds and he was left feeling helpless.

Leaving had been noble, but in a twisted way it had also been more cowardly than anything else he’d ever done. Away from the constant reminder of his wife’s death and his children’s pain, the focus was on work. On winning. On feeling like he could do something to make a difference.

Aang was an enigma to him. A strange child with a bizarrely tragic story. So young, they were all so young. When he had been their ages life hadn’t been easy but he hadn’t been thrust into war. He hadn’t been forced to leave home and his parents had never been taken away.

He did not blame Aang, and though he felt a regretful kind of slight resentment toward the boy, he knew it wasn’t fair. That fault laid upon the shoulders of the Fire Nation. -And he was so small. Such a tiny person with such disproportionate power, and all the same a child nonetheless. It was hard to imagine him defeating a fire lord, but there wasn’t another option.

The moon reflected on the ocean’s surface, making a million little lights dance across the water and off into the horizon. Life isn’t fair, and it’s least fair to the ones who need justice the most. Grief is a burden like no other. Grief for a mother, a people, a world torn apart.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you like it! I had one or two old fics of a similar theme (ATLA characters reflecting in ways that the show doesn't explicitly explore) on fanfiction waaaay back. If you'd like to see them let me know, and I'll see if I can edit them up to a level that I'm not ashamed to post haha


End file.
